1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to liquid crystal devices and electronic apparatuses.
2. Related Art
Among known liquid crystal devices are transflective liquid crystal devices, which operate in both reflective mode and transmissive mode. JP-A-2000-047217, for example, proposes a transflective liquid crystal device having a multigap structure, in which the thickness of a liquid crystal layer differs between reflective display regions and transmissive display regions to enhance contrast. Another type of transflective liquid crystal device includes a homeotropic liquid crystal to improve viewing-angle characteristics (see, for example, “Development of transflective LCD for high contrast and wide viewing angle by using homeotropic alignment”, M. Jisaki et al., Asia Display/ID W'01, pp. 133-136 (2001)).
The homeotropic liquid crystal device above includes protrusions disposed in the centers of transmissive display regions to control the direction in which liquid crystal molecules are tilted in the regions. The above reference, however, does not mention how to control the direction in which the liquid crystal molecules are tilted in reflective display regions. Irregularly tilted liquid crystal molecules leave discontinuous lines at the boundaries between different liquid crystal domains. Such discontinuous lines are called disclinations, which can cause problems such as afterimage. In addition, the liquid crystal domains have different viewing-angle characteristics and thus undesirably show grainy, stain-like irregularities in a displayed image when the liquid crystal device is viewed obliquely.
A homeotropic liquid crystal device having a multigap structure, on the other hand, disadvantageously tends to cause misalignment at steps formed between transmissive display regions and reflective display regions. In particular, the misalignment can be promoted by variations in the potentials of pixel-switching elements, such as thin-film diodes (TFDs) and thin-film transistors (TFTs), and wiring connected thereto if they are disposed near the steps. These steps can be covered two-dimensionally with a light-shielding film to prevent a decrease in contrast due to the misalignment of liquid crystal molecules at the steps, although the film undesirably decreases the aperture ratio of pixels and thus darkens the display.